George Spafford's Bio

George is a Principal Consultant with Pepperweed and an experienced practitioner in business and IT operations. He is a prolific author and speaker, and has consulted and conducted training on regulatory compliance, IT Governance, and process improvement in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and China. Publications include co-authorship of “The Visible Ops Handbook" and “Visible Ops Security”.

George holds an MBA from Notre Dame, a BA in Materials and Logistics Management from Michigan State University and an honorary degree from Konan Daigaku in Japan. He is a ITIL Service Manager, TOCICO Jonah and a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA). George is a current member of the IIA, ISACA, ITPI, ITSMF, and the TOCICO.

Endorsements:

"George Spafford is one of the most productive I've people I've met, which is of immense interest to me because we share some common passions: the need to effective manage IT changes and that repeatable, verifiable IT operational processes is path out of firefighting, and availability and security issues. We co-authored the Visible Ops Handbook together, which codifies knowledge and experience that George has gained the hard way in managing IT, and is definitely an authority in the field of IT, processes and auditing." -- Gene Kim, CTO, Tripwire

"George is a true boundary spanner and a rare find among Senior IT Service Management Executives. His ability to execute is complimented by the ease and clarity with which he communicates." -- Kevin Behr, CTO, IP Services

“George provided internal IT audit services to one of our clients and we were impressed by his audit and process improvement skills.” -- Kim Nunley, Managing Partner, Grant Thornton LLP

"George Spafford's expertise in IT audit, process and IT governance piqued our interest early on at The Information Technology Process Institute. Since then we have been very fortunate to have him as a major contributor to our delivery of research, benchmarking and prescriptive guidance. His integrity, drive and success at meeting and exceeding objectives serve as a benchmark for our organization. He is a formidable candidate for your consulting needs." -- Ron Neumann, COO, IT Process Institute

"In the many articles and columns he has contributed to JupiterWeb's IT Management sites, George Spafford has demonstrated an impressive grasp of the critical issues facing technology professionals, particularly those involving project management, IT Service Management and enterprise policies and procedures. We have received numerous responses from readers praising George's insights and ability to communicate ideas and concepts effectively." -- Chris Nerney, Executive Editor, JupiterMedia

Class Testimonials

"A well laid out presentation providing constructive guidance towards successful IT Control and Change Management" -- Helpdesk Manager, Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA)

"Very good coverage of quite a detailed subject. Overall better coverage than what I've seen from Gartner" -- Customer Service Manager, Westfield Limited ( Australia)

"Helped put all the pieces together and provided some pragmatic way forward" -- IT Director, Office of State Revenue ( Australia)

"I was beating my head against a brick wall trying to justify the importance a change management to management, this course helped me work out ways to do that" -- Change Manager, Department of Workplace Relations (DEWR) (Australia)

"I have really enjoyed the sessions, I liked the real life examples and the tone of the presentations, well facilitated" -- Infrastructure Manager, Ministry of Justice ( New Zealand)